I needed to say right off the bat that I had fun playing
this game, because much of what follows will focus on how the game tripped
and flailed and stumbled and bumbled… all the way into my game-loving
heart. If I really wanted to bash the game for its myriad of faults and
failures, I could have a lot of fun doing it, but the fact is that
Harbinger succeeds almost in spite of itself. Strange, but true.

If you’ve heard anything at all about Harbinger, you’ve
likely heard the catch phrase “Diablo in space”. I have no problem with
this advertisement except for two things – you never really experience
space, and it ain’t no Diablo. Other than that, though, the description
is pretty accurate!

Developed by newcomers Silverback Entertainment and
published by DreamCatcher, Harbinger does have a LOT in common with
Blizzard’s acclaimed action/RPG. From the fixed isometric perspective, to
the painless point and click-fest method of movement and combat, the hack
‘n slash dungeon crawl, linear story, and the wafer-thin RPG elements,
Silverback clearly snuck more than a few peeks at the Diablo design
documents when creating Harbinger. Is this a bad thing?? Heck no! And
they aren’t the first to have tried, either. There’s a REASON Diablo has
remained one of the most popular games of all time - its accessible,
addictive gameplay - and that’s exactly what Harbinger is hoping to
emulate. Before I get into specifics of how it fared in that regard,
let’s look at what ELSE Harbinger brings to the table.

In a welcome break from the traditional fantasy worlds
of most RPG’s, Harbinger is a futuristic sci-fi game. The title is taken
from the name of the massive ship that floats through space on
a relentless path of destruction under the oppressive control of a
malicious Overlord. Among the “inhabitants” of the Harbinger are races
such as the armoured Vantir, the mystical Scintilla, and the insectoid
Cimicidae; all enslaved races that the Overlord has deceived into warring
amongst themselves to prevent them from rebelling against their own
imprisonment. Of course, there’s also a tiny ragtag band opposed to the
Overlord and seeking a means to escape, including you – mercenary for hire
and ever-so-reluctant hero.

Beginning the game, you are free to pick between three
different characters – a human male, a robotic Gladiator, and a female
Culibine (an alien who happens to be the last of her species). There are
absolutely no stats to fuss over, and no way to determine strengths and
weaknesses at the outset. So, there’s nothing for it but to jump in feet
first and see where it takes you.

Despite the lack of player input on character creation,
I liked Harbinger.

Regardless of the character you choose, the game begins
in a small “outpost” called Torvus Junction, where you will meet several
of the game’s NPC’s, including Torvus, creator and inventor, Ona, an alien
salesman, and Leisha, who appears with a chip on her shoulder early in the
game. You’ll also encounter a couple other bizarre aliens called Wik and
Silus, and from these five characters you will receive each of your
quests.

The manual claims that “questing” is the central focus
of the game, and technically it’s true that you’ll spend your time
performing errands such as retrieving stolen items, making rescue
attempts, or corrupting vital technology. However, these quests are not
particularly engaging, and serve as little more than a backdrop for the
REAL focus of the game – smokin’ baddies. Yes, you will spend the vast
majority of your time in Harbinger fighting off hordes of enemies through
level after level, the reward for which usually being even MORE enemies.
Oh, and occasionally you’ll reach a stage where you accomplish your
mission and say, “Oh YEAH!! That’s what this was all about!” At which
point, you’ll return to Torvus Junction for a fine how-do-you-do and
receive your next “quest”.

Despite the laughably simple premise, I liked Harbinger.

The game actually does try hard to provide a meaningful
story, yet continually manages to undermine most of its own efforts. This
is noticeable right from the opening cutscene, which is a delightful but
ENTIRELY irrelevant depiction of Wik making himself a herp (slug)
milkshake. If that were the tone of the rest of the game, I’d be praising
it for its gutsy lightheartedness. As it is, I must instead complain that
it was a lost opportunity to really draw the gamer into the complex story
it tries so hard to otherwise create.

Once you leave Torvus Junction, the plot is revealed in
large part by meeting up with a stranger known affectionately as “Smiley”,
who just so happens to look like a... well, smiley. By conversing with
him electronically through scattered terminals across the ship, you learn
more about the background of the warring factions, the role of the
Overlord, etc. This was a nice touch, but unfortunately it came across as
a disjointed tale, particularly as you don’t get the COMPLETE story
playing as any one character. Sure, that may be something of an
enticement to play the game as the other two characters, but it’s
confusing and feels like being cheated somewhat until then. In fact, even
as a fully revealed narrative, the story ends up being largely wasted; a
minor diversion that simply slows down the monster bashing. I’m always
disappointed when such care is taken to establish a detailed backstory,
and then see its potential frittered away. Having said that, though,
there were a FEW moments where the story leapt out of its complacency and
made me take notice, so all was not lost in that department.

Despite the weaknesses in plot, I liked Harbinger.

Harbinger promises a unique experience for each of the
three characters, but that is only partly true. Each different scenario
contains one or two unique quests, but that means that the rest of the
time you’re covering all the same ground as you did previously. Again,
while crediting the developers with adding SOME new content, I was
certainly expecting more than was delivered, particularly since the maps
are not even randomly generated (as in Diablo), which means covering the
same ground REALLY means covering the exact same ground. NO, you’re not
experiencing déjà vu… you’ve just done this twice already…

Here’s where I’d like to tell you that the three
characters handle quite differently, at least. No dice. They do indeed
have different abilities, but apart from a few novelties, they end up
playing remarkably similar. The human is the well-rounded character for
strength and speed and has the ability to set mine traps, while the
Gladiator is stronger but slower, and is able to deploy remote cameras
(some of which are armed) to scout areas ahead. Each of these has ranged
and melee attacks, and carries weapons and armour with various slots for
special upgrades. Honestly, I found myself playing these characters in an
almost identical fashion, and only remembering to use the specialized
items as an amusement on occasion, because it was invariably quicker and
easier to go in with guns ‘ablazing.

The Culibine at least offers a few distinct features.
She wears no protective armour, so is much more vulnerable to attack, but
unlike the others, she slowly regenerates her health. Her ranged attack
is the slowest to unleash, so more distance is needed between you and an
enemy to unleash it. Rather than a melee option, the Culibine has a
radial attack which affects damage in a 360 degree radius. She also has
slots for special offensive or defensive amplifiers, which are useful in
combat, but require a separate type of regenerating power. I found the
Culibine to be by far the most interesting of the three to play, simply
because there were more options, and seemed to involve slightly more
strategy than the other two characters.

Despite the similarities among the three characters, I
liked Harbinger.

The lack of variety is not limited to the character
abilities, but also to the levels, enemies, weapons and items.
Harbinger’s method of transportation is through umbilicals and portals,
which theoretically allow you to travel to any part of the ship.
Unfortunately, despite this unlimited gameworld, which really could have
offered some creative map design, everything looks virtually identical -
an endless string of desolate metal ruins. The hallways, rooms,
platforms, machinery, and scattered junk all start to blend together, and
even the names make you question yourself… “Hmm, I’m in the outer prison
hallway… haven’t I been here? Looks familiar… Oh, no – that was the inner
lab chamber… or was that the upper processing corridor?…“

Aside from the levels looking far too similar, there
aren’t nearly enough enemy types populating them, either. The game claims
there are over 65 different enemy types, but many of these are
differentiated only by slight cosmetic changes. Personally, I don’t care
if a “Biter” is blue, red, brown or green… it’s still a Biter to me.
However, of the selection we DID get, I was reasonably impressed with the
models.

Weapons are equally limited. Although there were always
several for sale, by the time I could afford to buy one, I had already
found one of equal strength, and I’m sure I never used more than two or
three different weapons the entire game for any character. I can’t
conceive of a reason why the developers would not provide for a more
reasonable progression of weapons (and armour, for that matter), which
would have created much more interest in leveling up, scouring the various
chests, or hoarding items to trade for cash. As it is, I quickly learned
to leave most of the scattered junk alone, as there was simply never
anything worth saving up my money for.

Fortunately, the weapons could be altered with various
chips designed to modify the type of ammo used. While plasma is the most
common, and causes a reasonable amount of damage to all enemies, there are
also EMP, electricity, and disruption ammo types, among others, which have
a special impact on certain races (and are virtually useless against
others). Still, given the limitations of inventory size, it was
impractical to stay equipped with chips (or Culibine amps) for all
contingencies, so plowing ahead with only plasma was frequently my
resigned strategy.

Despite the repetitive details, I liked Harbinger.

Stat management is something of a joke in Harbinger. As
in all such games, experience points are earned by defeating enemies and
completing quests, but leveling up provides only a very limited
opportunity to personalize your character. Each one has a mere four skill
types that can be increased, and all are related to fighting or defensive
ability. There isn’t even a cursory attempt to throw in variables like
trap detection (there are none), or line-of-sight improvement (visibility
always remains frustratingly limited… and note to developers - when
looking forward, I can see farther in FRONT of me than I can see BEHIND
me, so please adjust accordingly), or anything else to make the game feel
a little more dynamic.

Despite the lack of any significant RPG elements, I
liked Harbinger.

Fighting itself can often be an exercise in tedium, as
well. Until melee abilities (or radial for the Culibine) are built up
substantially later in the game, ranged attacks are clearly the order of
the day, so fights usually become a repetitive pattern of shooting,
retreating, and shooting again. As each enemy requires several (or many)
shots to kill, by the time I finished most battles, I had to run a fair
distance just to get BACK to where the fight had begun, and often then be
forced to repeat the process until I’d cleared out any and all enemies.
Yes, I realize this is the point of the game, but it still got annoying
having to spend so much time going backwards.

This is compounded by the fact that both movement and
targeting enemies (not to mention all interaction with people and items)
are done through the left mouse button. This means it’s incredibly easy
to accidentally order your character to run headlong towards an enemy
rather than fire on him as you intended. True, the game designates the
Shift key as a “stand in place” command, but as you must keep MOVING to
avoid fire, standing in place is no more desirable than running in the
wrong direction. It’s a nuisance that should have been ironed out, since
combat is the very heart of Harbinger’s gameplay.

Despite my scaredy-cat tactics, I found Harbinger to be
one of the EASIEST games to play. Sure, I died a handful of times, but
often only when I KNEW I was pushing my luck (and/or doing something
incredibly stupid – don’t ask!) No matter which character I used, I was
often forced to start discarding health “potions” because I had far more
than I needed cluttering my inventory. Even the “boss” battles I
generally found to be remarkably unchallenging, as they were all slow and
methodical and relatively ineffective, requiring only patience to beat.
If enemies increased in difficulty at all as the game progressed, it was
completely nullified by the improved strength of your character, so
fighting an enemy near the end of the game felt no different than fighting
one early on. Personally, I didn’t mind the slightly easier challenge,
but as there are no difficulty settings, those looking for something
harder are out of luck.

Despite the monotonous nature of the combat, I liked
Harbinger.

Graphically, Harbinger is appealing enough, if somewhat
simplistic. The backgrounds are crisp and clean, the characters are all
nicely rendered, and animations are smooth. There were several nice
touches, mostly involving active machinery like the umbilicals and special
housing equipment for several of the bosses. The interface for each
character had a distinct look, which was a feature I appreciated. Still,
I found details to be rather minimal, particularly for a 2D presentation,
and as I said, everything looked too similarly dull and drab to really be
an attraction. This gave the overall image a somewhat “dated”
look, as if it would have been noteworthy a couple years ago, but merely
mediocre today. There were also some graphical inconsistencies, such as
enemies not appearing behind corners as they were supposed to, which meant
you could practically walk on top of them before ever being aware of their
presence, giving them a nice clear look at the whites of your eyes.

Sound quality was one of the game’s stronger points.
The voice acting, although not extensive, was done well across the board,
and dialogue even had some nice touches of humour. Harbinger’s music was
subtle, but eerie, and did a good job of conveying the proper atmosphere
for the game. Sound effects were all nicely presented, including the
various enemy and weapon noises. Again, however, there were a few
drawbacks. For instance, in several areas that included generators which
produced a faint hum, all other noises were completely drowned out, which
led to battles in virtual silence. At other times, my characters were
running through what could only be described as purple “goo”, and yet
footfall sounded identical to running on the metal floors. Neither of
these examples is a big deal, of course, but still something that
shouldn’t happen in a professional product.

In a stunning departure from its Diablo role model,
Harbinger offers no multiplayer option at all. Unfortunately, this will
seriously affect the replay appeal of this game for a great many players,
and it seems hard to believe Silverback and DreamCatcher would allow such
an omission.

Other minor gripes include the pathetic aiming ability
of my characters. And yes, I mean my characters, not me. I could
literally be standing toe to toe with an enemy in the latter part of the
game, with my ranged skill maxed out, and still miss point blank four or
five times in a row. That’s not right. One design choice that I didn’t
like was the tiny inventory. Sure, I understand the philosophy behind
limited inventory, but not only did I find this one undersized, there was
no way to quickly organize it, so it was continually necessary to manually
shuffle items around to fit larger items in, and since most of the quest
items were huge, it was often necessary to do so. Perhaps even that
wouldn’t have been so bad except for one horrendous, spirit-crushing
incident…

Apparently, at one point of my inventory shuffling near
the end of my human campaign, I must have accidentally DROPPED a vital
quest item, and proceeded without realizing it. Once I discovered it
missing, I was incredibly disappointed to realize I would need to go on a
treasure hunt to find a needle in a haystack, only to become royally ticked
that for the first time all game, the umbilicals would not let me reverse
my tracks! In other words, the game had effectively created a dead end
for me about 10 minutes from the endgame. Nice!!

Despite these little quibbles and one excruciating
heartache, I liked… well, hang on – no, I’m STILL steamed about the dead
end.

So why DID I like this game that clearly has so many
holes?? Mainly because it succeeds at its most basic level. Harbinger is
an incredibly simple, point and shoot action/RPG that draws you in one
enemy, one click at a time. It never feels overwhelming; never asks more
than “just a little bit more”. Story? Sure, it’s there to add a little
window dressing where necessary, but for the most part it’s a matter of
story-shmory. Just bash and dash, baby! … See? The game is so
simplistic even my mind is turning to mush! But you know what? My brain
works hard enough the rest of the time – sometimes it’s nice just to let
loose a little, and Harbinger rolls out the red carpet for just such an
occasion.

Harbinger doesn’t measure up to Diablo in almost any
category of direct comparison, but it succeeds just enough to capture the
right degree of that game’s addictive nature. Add to that an
under-utilized science fiction setting (even if it fails to properly
capitalize on the infinite creative possibilities), and you’re left with
really the only game of its kind. Beyond that, aside from a few
unfortunate freezes, the game ran smoothly for me unpatched, and the
save-anywhere feature is present and accounted for (not always a guarantee
these days).

Anyone looking for a deep, engaging RPG experience had
best move right along, because you won’t find that in Harbinger. Anyone
hoping to see a title topple the almighty Diablo at its own game will be
disappointed. In fact, anyone hoping for a polished product that raises
the bar of quality will be equally let down here. But for anyone (and I
KNOOOOOW you’re out there!) who might be interested in a refreshingly
simple, stress-relieving, action/RPG romp through the corridors of a
spaceship of doom, Harbinger is the game for you.

Final score: 73%

Played on:

Win XP

Pentium 4, 2 GHz

512 MB RAM

GeForce 4

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